The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to review Arizona’s controversial immigration law known as S.B. 1070. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction barring implementation of four core provisions of the Arizona law, including the section that would require local police to verify the immigration status of anyone they had a “reasonable suspicion” of believing is undocumented. Opponents of the law have claimed that its implementation would, among other things, increase the racial profiling of Latinos.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been dubbed “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” but he has been criticized on many occasions for violating the civil rights of Latinos and immigrants. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a detailed report finding, based on a thorough investigation, that the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office had engaged in a pattern and practice of “unconstitutional policing” and violated the civil rights of Latinos and immigrants in police stops and the conditions of detention. Read the report documenting the violations. It is troubling that such lawlessness could go on for so long.

The Obama administration, pursuing its “enforcement now, enforcement forever” deportation policy set another removal record for the fiscal year of nearly 400,000. Last year's record-setting number of removals made the list of top immigration news stories for 2010.

Provoking criticism from advocates of greater immigration enforcement, the Obama administration issued new prosecutorial discretion guidelines. In a surprising move, the administration also called for the review of hundreds of thousands of removal cases to see if they deserve priority treatment under the new guidelines. Implementation has been spotty with many undocumented immigrants uncertain of where they stand.

Consistent with its checkered civil rights history, the Alabama legislature in June passed what its supporters claimed was the "toughest" state immigration law in the United States, no small feat with state after state seeking to earn that “honor.” Georgia and South Carolina also have Arizona-like immigration laws, which have been subject to legal challenge. The U.S. government's challenge to the Alabama law is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Last January, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, as well as U.S. District Judge John Roll and five others, were shot in a murderous rampage by a deranged gunman in Tucson, Arizona. Although not really immigration news, the killings occurred in a state that had for years seen overheated political rhetoric over immigration. Miraculously, Congresswoman Giffords is recovering well from the shooting.

Anti-immigrant activist Shawna Forde was convicted of murdering an Arizona father and daughter in a home invasion robbery that turned horribly bad. Prosecutors claimed that Forde sought money to support her anti-immigrant political activities. She was convicted and given the death penalty. The mainstream media paid little attention to this case.

This is not really news because nobody seems to be paying any attention. But, due to heightened enforcement along the U.S./Mexico border, migrants continue to die horrible deaths in deserts and mountains in the region. This story also made the top immigration news for 2010.